“Blithering idiocy”

Guardian journalist George Monbiot recently described some of the more blatant media attacks on the science of climate change as “blithering idiocy” (see The sceptics are skating on thin ice). He gave examples from the Telegraph claiming that the current weather in the UK supported the idea of a looming ice age rather than global warming (eg. Global warming: Al Gore’s convenient untruth freezes over). Monbiot asks: “Is there any other subject on which journalists can make such magnificent idiots of themselves and still keep their jobs?”

Fortunately the researcher quoted by these reports, Mojib Latif, a climate expert at the Leibniz Institute at Kiel University in Germany, protested at the misrepresentation. He pointed out that: “What we are experiencing now is a weather phenomenon” – not climate. His findings don’t contradict global warming at all (see Leading climate scientist challenges Mail on Sunday’s use of his research).

It’s well accepted that about 45% of added CO2 remains in the atmosphere while the rest is absorbed by oceans and into biomass. Of course, this doesn’t prevent the actual concentration of atmospheric CO2 increasing.

Still waiting for New Zealand’s own Ian Wishart to pick up that story!

Denialism and creationism

So, while there is plenty of room for rational discussion with people who may be sceptical about various scientific assessments of climate change I think that George Monbiot is justified to call the statements of some of the deniers “blithering idiocy.” Their sort of distortion reminds me very much of the some of the behaviour of creationists. In fact the Daily Kos says “Denialism is essentially Creationism for otherwise smart people” in its post Climate Denial Sociopathology, Creationism: Hacked Emails, Piltdown. And “What they [the hacked emails] do show is that, like life scientists, climate scientists have to work in the shadow of a global program to discredit their efforts.”

Here’s an interesting comparison of global warming denialism and creationism taken from the daily Kos post: